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Stanford Pupper: low-cost quadruped robot

stanfordstudentrobotics.org

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Re: Stanford Pupper: low-cost quadruped robot

#11

Post by andybak »

n0us wrote: post #8

> You can buy most of the parts directly from a reseller like Amazon or McMaster-Carr, but for some you’ll need to get them custom manufactured for you. The custom parts include the carbon fiber routed parts, the 3D printed parts, the power distribution printed circuit board, and the motors. Very cool and I would like to build this, but the "Nano Dog" is probably a cheaper and more approachable option for the garage…

> the "Nano Dog" is probably a cheaper and more approachable option for the garage engineer.

Hard to find out much about that or OpenDog in general. I've found videos and 3d printer files but nothing that I can read to understand what it can do and why I might want to build it.

Or do I really have to watch a bunch of YouTube videos? I hate video.

Have I missed the actual project page somehow?

Re: Stanford Pupper: low-cost quadruped robot

#13

Post by billconan »

n0us wrote: post #8

> You can buy most of the parts directly from a reseller like Amazon or McMaster-Carr, but for some you’ll need to get them custom manufactured for you. The custom parts include the carbon fiber routed parts, the 3D printed parts, the power distribution printed circuit board, and the motors. Very cool and I would like to build this, but the "Nano Dog" is probably a cheaper and more approachable option for the garage…

For carbon fiber parts (used for the chassis and legs), I wonder if it is possible to carve them out out from the same power distribution PCB board. Some PCB manufacture seems to support custom shapes.

But the PCB material must be heavier than carbon fiber, not sure if it will affect the robot dynamics.

Re: Stanford Pupper: low-cost quadruped robot

#14

Post by n0us »

andybak wrote: post #11
n0us wrote: post #8

> You can buy most of the parts directly from a reseller like Amazon or McMaster-Carr, but for some you’ll need to get them custom manufactured for you. The custom parts include the carbon fiber routed parts, the 3D printed parts, the power distribution printed circuit board, and the motors. Very cool and I would like to build this, but the "Nano Dog" is probably a cheaper and more approachable option for the garage…

> the "Nano Dog" is probably a cheaper and more approachable option for the garage engineer. Hard to find out much about that or OpenDog in general. I've found videos and 3d printer files but nothing that I can read to understand what it can do and why I might want to build it. Or do I really have to watch a bunch of YouTube videos? I hate video. Have I missed the actual project page somehow?

Good point, now that I am searching for it I cannot seem to find the code. At the same time it still does not require custom manufactured parts or circuit boards which makes the barrier to entry (and importantly price) a bit lower unless the Stanford folks setup a store.

I make an internet promise here and now that if I ever build the robot I'll open source the source code to control it.

Re: Stanford Pupper: low-cost quadruped robot

#15

Post by serf »

amelius wrote: post #12

What kind of control algorithms do they use for robots like these?

the simple gaits are usually PIDs that integrate requested control directions and gyro data, bounded by maximum servo speed.

here's an informative youtube video that's all about quadrupedal dog-style robots.[0]

fancier gaits integrate elements that measure leg length and foot pressures.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MGZvcd0xxc

Re: Stanford Pupper: low-cost quadruped robot

#16

Post by msadowski »

I came across this project while working on my newsletter and thought HN might appreciate this. With the $500-600 price I'm heavily thinking of building one for myself.

If someone would like to build something larger then Stanford Dogg (https://github.com/Nate711/StanfordDoggoProject) is one choice, however as far as I remember the price comes to around $3k for parts only.

Even cheaper alternative to Pupper could be OpenCat (https://www.petoi.com/) however it was never fully open source and I don't think it's available anywhere.

Re: Stanford Pupper: low-cost quadruped robot

#17

Post by wslh »

What is the cheapest robot you can build? This robot is pretty expensive, is much more than a Lego Mindstorms EV3, Bandai Smartpet Robot Dog is USD 157 in Amazon.

I am mainly thinking about a "one robot per child" initiative.

Re: Stanford Pupper: low-cost quadruped robot

#18

Post by syntaxing »

For about the same price, you can build a "spot micro" [1] if you have a 3D printer. I haven't build one myself (yet) but it's been fun following them. I came across them when someone in HN posted how to train it using OpenGym (will find the link when I'm not on mobile).

[1] https://gitlab.com/custom_robots/spotmicroai

Re: Stanford Pupper: low-cost quadruped robot

#20

Post by rspicer »

andybak wrote: post #11
n0us wrote: post #8

> You can buy most of the parts directly from a reseller like Amazon or McMaster-Carr, but for some you’ll need to get them custom manufactured for you. The custom parts include the carbon fiber routed parts, the 3D printed parts, the power distribution printed circuit board, and the motors. Very cool and I would like to build this, but the "Nano Dog" is probably a cheaper and more approachable option for the garage…

> the "Nano Dog" is probably a cheaper and more approachable option for the garage engineer. Hard to find out much about that or OpenDog in general. I've found videos and 3d printer files but nothing that I can read to understand what it can do and why I might want to build it. Or do I really have to watch a bunch of YouTube videos? I hate video. Have I missed the actual project page somehow?

https://github.com/XRobots/miniDogV2

The code's a bit of a mess -- James is clearly not a software engineer first. This is totally understandable, given that he does so many other things!

When I first saw the code, I thought about doing a refactoring pass and making a pull request. It would be painful to test correctness without the hardware, and I don't want to make things worse, so I haven't.

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